Countdown
'' |image= |series= |production=40358-075/323 |producer(s)= |story= |script= André Bormanis and Chris Black |director= Robert Duncan McNeill |imdbref=tt0572194 |guests=Scott MacDonald as Commander Dolim, Rick Worthy as Jannar, Tucker Smallwood as Xindi-Primate Councilor, Josette DiCarlo as Sphere-Builder Woman, Bruce Thomas as Xindi-Reptilian Soldier, Andrew Borba as Xindi-Reptilian Lieutenant, Mary Mara as Sphere-Builder Presage, Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builder Primary, Steven Culp as Major Hayes and Paul Dean as Reptilian Technician |previous_production=The Council |next_production=Zero Hour |episode=ENT S03E23 |airdate=19 May 2004 |previous_release=The Council |next_release=Zero Hour |story_date(s)= 13 February 2154 |previous_story=The Council |next_story=Zero Hour }} =Summary= Needing a third species' codes in order to arm the weapon, Ensign Hoshi Sato is injected with neural-parasites while she is a prisoner of the Xindi-Reptilians. With the Xindi superweapon about to be armed and time running out, Captain Jonathan Archer tries to persuade the Xindi-Aquatics to help destroy it. Sato's kidnapping, and Archer's promises to shut down the 70-plus known spheres, finally convinces the Aquatics into believing that the Sphere Builders, and not the humans, may indeed represent their true enemy. A battle between Archer's Xindi-fleet and the Reptilian-Insectoid fleet soon breaks out around the superweapon. With the support of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, a small squad of MACOs, led by Major Hayes, transports on board to extract Sato. With the space battle ongoing, the transporter system is damaged so that only two personnel can beam out at one time. Hayes sends one of his men and Sato out first, and then the rest of the team. Hayes, now alone, is forced to retreat and just as he is beaming out, a Reptilian soldier fires through his chest. Back on board Enterprise, he collapses on the transporter platform, and soon dies of heart-failure in Sickbay. With the "threads of time" turning against them, the Sphere Builders decide to intervene by creating spatial distortions around the weapon. A number of Aquatic ships are destroyed, which buys the Reptilians enough time to finally activate the codes. Dolim has the superweapon enter a vortex and heads for Earth, escorted by allied ships. Inside one of the vessels, having witnessed the interference of the Guardians, the Insectoid leader begins to doubt the motives of the Reptilians. Since the Reptilians already have the Insectoid's launch code, they dissolve their alliance by destroying the Insectoid's ship. Archer makes a plan to pursue Dolim using Degra's faster spaceship, taking a sickened Sato with his team to guide them through the superweapon. =Errors and Exlanations= Nit Central # Trike on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 12:20 am: Malcolm has become the anti-Red Shirt. He doesn't die, but people around him do. Two weeks in a row, now. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: He wasn’t on the mission to rescue Hoshi. # DMW on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 7:25 am: Some nice scenes for Hoshi, but was she really the Reptilian’s best choice for deciphering the Aquatics' command codes (no matter how gifted a linguist she is)? Surely an aggressive and technologically advanced species like the Reptilians, previously at war with the well-armed Aquatics and with hundreds (if not thousands) of years to tackle the problem, could have come up with a better way to translate'decrypt Aquatic than ... oh.... say .... relying on the on-the-fly, drugged-up efforts of a sworn enemy. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: I’ve always gotten the impression that Hoshi is uniquely talented in this area, in a way that most people have never seen, so the Reptilians may not have anyone on her level of linguistic genius. # Finally, did the “Captain’s Table” sequence strike anyone else as ill-timed and way too lighthearted? I understand the concept -- senior officers share a few moments of camaraderie and small talk on the eve of the big battle. But Jeez Louise, this is hardly the calm before the storm. The Xindi Superweapon has been launched, Hoshi has been kidnapped and you’re in hot pursuit. Is now really a good time to have Chef break out the steaks? Darth Sarcasm on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 12:59 pm: I thought it was the equivalent of Angel's "take the day off" sequence... I think it was supposed to give us the impression that Archer felt this might be it... it might be their last meal. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: They have to eat, DMW, don’t they? # Duane Parsons on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 1:16 pm: Trip repairing the transporter, sees the lights going steady and bright, and saying the transporter is up. he did check out the console and everything was OK, but not shown. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: Maybe. Or perhaps those lights are a trouble-shooting indicator. When they’re lit, all major systems in the transporer pad are operational (though this would certainly lend itself to tripping up the creators later on if a scene requires the transporter to be down and they’re still lit up. :)) # Major Haynes moving out of his cover into the hall with the lizards at both ends??? His people and Hoshi were being beamed out by the wall, but, no, the good Major had to break cover and get shot. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: He didn’t know they were at both ends. They were only at one end initially. When the two other Reptilians appeared at the opposite end, he knocked them out with a grenade, and with no further weapons fire from that direction, he didn’t know there were any more in that direction. After dealing with the first batch in the first direction and having the others beamed out, Hayes moved back in that second direction. Only then when he tried to make a break for it in that opposite direction did that solider appear before Hayes could take cover. AWhite (Inblackestnight) on Friday, November 15, 2013 - 1:12 pm: I thought that a bad move as well. He had to assume he was surrounded, so why break cover when there were two successful beamouts? Also, why was he the only one who used a stun grenade? During every beamout they could've used one and covered at least one side of the passageway. # Harvey Kitzman on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 1:53 pm: I wanted to kick my TV over this one - if T'Pol becomes a Star Fleet member, it will directly fly in the face of the established canon of Spock being the first Vulcan in Star Fleet. Again, another example of the idiocy of Berman and Braga in a potential violation of continuity. But as continuity has never mattered to these two morons, I'm not surprised. The Undesirable Element on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 4:22 pm: I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I can't recall anything being said in any episode that proved that Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet. I seem to remember that there was an entire Federation ship filled with Vulcans in a TOS episode (The Doomsday Device I think). I believe it was the Intrepid. Intrepid is a Federation ship name. ScottN on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 5:51 pm: The Immunity Syndrome (TOS). The USS Intrepid was manned completely by Vulcans, and destroyed by the space amoeba. Also, it doesn't make sense for Spock to be the first Vulcan in Starfleet. Starfleet is supposed to be the defense and exploration branch of the UFP. The UFP is made up of many different races. The question should be why we see so many humans on Starfleet ships in the other series. It seems pretty unreasonable that humans were in charge of defending the entire Federation for almost a century. Watching the Original Series one gets the impression that the Federation is synonymous with Earth. Why weren't there all kinds of aliens running around the decks of the Enterprise. Obi-Juan on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 7:23 pm: Enterprise establishes that Starfleet is a human organization long before the formation of the Federation. It does seem that the bulk of the Starfleet vessels in ST:TNG time are staffed by humans, but humans have been serving in Starfleet for 100 years before Kirk and Co. Do other races contribute their own ships to Starfleet and staff them with non-mixed crews? Or do other races simply not show abundant interest in serving in Starfleet, as humans do? And of course I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the Starfleet of Enterprise is not the same Starfleet as the later series. This is the EARTH Starfleet. Later series have a FEDERATION Starfleet. This is such a muddled issue that I really don't care whether T'Pol joins Starfleet or not. At least it would get her out of that catsuit. Ron Saarna on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 4:54 am: I don't remember if this was something I read in a book somewhere, or imagined it to cover other plotholes before, but I believe that Spock is the first Vulcan to graduate Starfleet Academy. This explains away the original series nit of a whole shipload of Vulcans, and allows Spock to retain his "special" status. Kind of like how we will participate with other allied forces, even allowing them to command us in missions, but that doesn't mean they went through the same training, share our philosophy, etc. When Spock went through the Academy, that sealed the relationship between Vulcans, The Federation, and Starfleet. # The Undesirable Element on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 4:22 pm: What was with the away team of 4 throughout the show. Why not send a huge away team over to the Xindi ship to retrieve Hoshi? Why not take more than three MACOs on Degra's ship? ScottN on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 5:52 pm: In both cases, space? The transporter doesn't look like it can handle too many more than four (or five, counting Hoshi). Degra's ship doesn't look that big either. # Hayes's last words to Malcolm are to let MacKenzie have control of the MACOs because she knows them best. Yet when it comes time to pick his group to go on Degra's ship, Malcolm neither consults her nor chooses her to go on the mission. DMW on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 5:07 pm: I noticed that, too. I assumed that Malcolm was letting his sense of guilt and personal responsibility for the mission override Hayes' advice. Still, he should have at least brought MacKenzie along as the most qualified "2nd." Torque, Son of Keplar on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 9:52 pm: Reed didn't pick her because she is to be the new leader of the MACOs. Remember, as Reed pointed out, that Hayes had individually picked each MACO because he knew they could get the job done. Thus more MACOs are on Earth, that will need a new commanding officer. Obi-Juan on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 7:23 pm: I wondered why they didn't take all the MACOs on that mission. Then I figured that the Enterprise will be attacking a sphere soon, and Reed might be anticipating that they would need a MACO team on that mission. If Reed is on the team with Archer, McDaniels would lead the MACO team onto the sphere. Besides, they seem to have established that when Reed lead the MACOs, no other MACO officers are on the team. # MrPorter on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 10:34 am: I thought this was a pretty cool ep, though I was fairly distracted this past Wed. and I'm definitely going to catch the rerun- so forgiveness please if this point was answered during the ep- but why would Hoshi, or the Reptillians for that matter, need to decript the Aquatics' codes specifically? At that point they could've gone for the Humanoids' or Arboreals' codes and not have the added linguistic barriers to deal with, no? LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: They don’t. Dolum merely used Hoshi’s earlier deciphering of the Aquatics’ language as an example of why he was impressed with her linguistic abilities. That doesn’t mean that that was the specific arming code he wanted her crack. For all we know, the Humanoid or Arboreals’ codes are the ones he had Hoshi crack. # Obi-Juan on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 7:23 pm: The MACO rescue team finally moved like a real military unit, very efficient. I didn't like their arrangement at the beam-in point, but I'm assuming that the beam-in point was in the middle of the corridor, and that they could not beam out from the intersections, which would have been a much more defensible position. I did disagree with their beam-out sequence. Hoshi should have been transported by herself, giving the MACOs full firepower, then have 2 beam out and allow Hayes and 1 other to remain and provide mutual supporting fire, then beam out together. Hoshi was in no fit state to be beamed back on her own – after what the Reptillians had done to her, she could barely stand without assistance! # Archer was warned that the Reptilians would have troops on the weapon. I sure hope he brought more than 3 MACOs on this boarding party. I would have brought about 1/3 of the crew, and all the phase pistols and explosives on the Enterprise. This IS the end of Earth, I think I'd maximize my firepower and do as much damage to the weapon as possible. That would leave Enterprise vulnerable to counter attack. # Nove Rockhoomer on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 2:33 pm: When the Reptilian commander orders Hoshi taken back to her cell, it sounds as if the cell is nearby, but she must have been taken to another Reptilian vessel. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: She was. T’Pol told Archer on the bridge during the battle that she was on one of the Reptilian vessels. Lucky for the Enterprise; otherwise, the anomaly would have kept them from rescuing her. However, I assumed they didn’t just kill her once she figured out the code because they might need her talents again. So why would they put her on a different vessel? SeniramUK 11:54, November 26, 2018 (UTC) Maybe to make it more difficult for any rescurers? # Darth Sarcasm on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 10:48 am: Didn't the Guardian promise Reptilian dominance if Earth were destroyed? Even if he knows about the reconfiguration, he may simply think that as long as he works to help the Guardians, they'll protect the Reptilians and exclude them from their plans of conquest. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:30 am: But why Dolum would settle for mere “protection” and “exclusion” from conquest, when he was promised dominance? How can the Reptilains be “dominant” if the entire Expanse is going to be made uninhabitable for them? What, are the Guardians going to give the Reptilians an itty-bitty “portion” of the Expanse in which they can survive, kinda like a fishbowl? Is Dolum really content with having “dominance” over a tiny portion of the Expanse, and being unable to travel to any other part of it, when he can pretty much travel to any part of it he wants now? It’s like playing Monopoly and manipulating others so that you can get Baltic and Mediterranean Avenue. # LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 9:19 am: The Xindi-Humanoid tells Archer in the Situation Room in Act 2 that the Reptilians and Insectoids have stopped less than four light years from the Enterprise’s current position. Archer asks how quickly can they get there. Well, Broken Bow established that the Enterprise, at Warp 4.5, can travel a light year in 4.53 days, so four light years would require 18.1 days. “Less than” four lights would require less, though since Trip told Archer he could give him Warp 3.4 “with a little coaxing” in Act 5 of the previous episode, it would probably be much more. I can buy the idea that the Aquatics’ ships are as fast as the Reptilians’ and Insectoids’, but the Enterprise keeps up with them, and the impression one gets from Acts 2 and 3 is that they got to the Weapon in a short amount of time. Or does the vortex grant the same amount of speed to every ship that enters it, regardless of the ship’s warp factor? AWhite (Inblackestnight) on Friday, November 15, 2013 - 1:12 pm: Although it was only a few seconds, perhaps around 10, the other Xindi ships arrived before the Aquatics. Also, Enterprise didn't have to keep up with the fleet, the Aquatics housed them in their forward bay and let them out when Archer said "cut us loose." # Isn’t Degra’s ship a science vessel? Why does it join the battle in Act 3? I can suspend my disbelief enough to suppose that it was able to destroy the Reptilian ship near the end of The Forgotten by using the element of surprise, but to go into battle with it? The Xindi-Humanoid even says in the second scene of Act 4 that even though it’s considerably faster than the Aquatics’ ships, going after Dolum in it isn’t wise because it isn’t well-armed. So why did it join the attack earlier, rather than hang back? SeniramUK 11:54, November 26, 2018 (UTC) They're sending a message to the Reptilians, indicating that they aren't going to be bullied any more. Category:EpisodesCategory:Enterprise